Hugh Jackman puts back on the muscle, the facial hair, and the metal alloy adamantium claws for his latest turn as X-Men Logan, better known as The Wolverine. With it being his sixth official appearance on screen as the self-healing hero (he’s currently filming the seventh) fans are expecting something refreshing from a character who’s been around for decades, and Jackman says this movie delivers on that need, while keep the core of The Wolverine in tact.

“This story takes The Wolverine into a world that is vastly different from any seen before in the X-Men series,” he says. “It’s visually different and the tone is different. There are a lot of battles in this story, but the greatest battle of all is the one within Logan between being a monster and a becoming a human being.”

“One thing I find particularly interesting about Wolverine is his immortality, the fact that with his healing factor he can go on forever like a god, and because of that he also experiences the loneliness of a god,” adds director James Mangold. “Even when Logan loses those he loves, he knows that he will keep going on. He’s been going on for a century now, through wars and battles and deaths of his loved ones and he’s come to a point of great weariness. It’s a classic theme – the man who can live forever but suffers because of it. Logan is a damaged hero, and this story is very much about him looking to reclaim something he’s lost in himself.”

Logan’s self-exploration is diverted by an unexpected trip to Japan to say his goodbyes to a dying friend he saved during war years prior. But there’s much more to this death bed visit than Logan bargained for and finds himself the target of a greedy old man with a strong desire for the immortality Logan possesses. A complex story set in a land full of tradition and honor and a hero who is more rugged than the location calls for is what Mangold is hoping sets this movie apart.

“In feudal Japan, the Samurai belonged to a master, and a Rōnin is a Samurai who no longer has a master to serve. So, [Logan] is a kind of a warrior without a purpose, without a cause,” Mangold explains. “Many of the people who made Logan feel part of a cause are now gone. So, he’s essentially a lost man, capable of doing anything, with no mandate. That’s an iconography that American Westerns and Samurai films share and now we’re bringing a comic book character into it.”

The Wolverine is filled with elements that Jackman and Mangold hope make it distinct, just like the main character. And Jackman breaks down the ‘Seven Reasons Why’ he thinks both the character and the movie are unique.